The Veterans Affairs Department transitioned to a long-term solution for Post-9/11 GI Bill processing on August 23, said VA officials during a September 2 press briefing. All veteran records were successfully transitioned to the new platform and all 1,200 claims-processors are now using the new technology.

Veterans Affairs Chief Information Officer Roger Baker said there were no severity "1" errors with the installation of the system and over 600,000 veteran records were converted smoothly.

"We opted for quality over just pushing it in, and I think that's been very important. Clearly, we needed to make very certain that we didn't cause any processing hiccups going into that fall enrollment," said Baker.

As the VA transitioned to the new system it faced a backlog of unpaid claims and improperly processed claims. On September 7, the VA will be sending 153,000 lump-sum checks to students who received lower-than-intended stipends since Jan. 1. Some recipients received as much as $250 less per month than was intended, because the legacy system failed to recognize cost of living adjustments last year.

Not only will the automated system cut claims processing in half, it can better track payments and allow changes in housing allowance rates to be applied more quickly.

With the problems of the legacy system behind it, the VA hopes the new automated process will help it deal with an increase in claims. Fall enrollment is 14 percent greater than it was last fall and the agency is now able to handle about 10,000 GI Bill claims a day, said Keith Wilson, director of the VA's Office of Education Service. Last year VA was processing only about 2,000 claims a day.

"There's a lot of work that continues to be needed in the fall enrollment, but we're very happy with how we've started off," said Wilson. "Our productive capacity is much higher and that has put is in a much better position."

For more:
- Listen to the press briefing

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